Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, U.S.D.A. 



AN INNOCENT-LOOKING HIDEOUT 



The new spring spores of wheat rust attack the young leaves of the barberry. By 

 destroying the barberry, we are able to control the black stem rust of wheat, for the 

 rust dies out during the winter months. The species has no way to keep going unless 

 both its hosts are present in the same area 



controlled by encouraging other insects was made in the early part of the last 

 century by two English entomologists. They declared that the aphids, or 

 plant Hce, which did great damage to hops, could be cleaned out of the green- 

 houses and fields by increasing the number of ladybirds (see page 581). 



Since 1916 the Japanese beetle has been spreading destruction to more 

 than two hundred and fifty varieties of crop, garden, and orchard plants in 

 twenty-two states (see page 655). After years of search in Japan and Korea 

 agents of the United States Department of Agriculture found two natural 

 enemies of this pest that promise to help check its injurious career. One of 

 these is a genus of antlike winged insects. The female burrows in the ground, 

 where the beetle larva destroys the roots of plants. She stings a larva and 

 paralyzes it, and then lays an egg in it. As the young parasite hatches out of 

 the egg, it feeds upon the larva and destroys it. The other promising natural 

 enemy of the beetle is a spore-bearing bacillus that produces a fatal disease in 

 the larva. The bacteria multiply in the blood of the insect and turn it into a 



595 



